I’ve heard a few things in recent days that are disturbing to me. Statements like, “they’re really pushing this racial thing right now, I don’t want to be insensitive, but why don’t they give it a break. Those people should be doing such and such instead of complaining. They’re always complaining.”
This leaves me trying to figure out to whom they refer as “they”. And if “they” give it a break…what is it we get back to?
I’m soon to be 73 this year. My family history says I don’t have a very good chance for 10 more years, so I have no time whatsoever to worry about what other people should be doing…but instead… what can I do to make a difference in the turmoil of this present world as a legacy for my children, my granddaughters and their children.
Well…I can speak out. I can make music. I can write poems. So I will.
HOW THINGS WERE
those good old days
how good were they
was justice only noise
well now some say
we’ve had enough
in protest lift their voice
equality
is thought prescribed
by each of us alone
but apathy
and what has been
will never make it so
a man named Martin Luther King
a prince of prayerful means
led weave of faith
and peace that brought
our nation to it’s knees
he said the wheels of change must roll
through constant struggling
but not by might
and not by fires
of our hostility
i fear to think
i understand
so blind in many ways
am I resigned
to simply watch
oppression grind away
will I dismiss those soulful cries
and leave hate undisturbed
to just let sleeping dogs lie still
and back to how things were
well bigotry won’t be put down
without our vigilance
but courage born
brings justice for
oppressor and oppressed
now there’s a force
that can transform
of whom good Martin spoke
he said it’s thru God’s healing love
despair can turn to hope
A poem by Greg Nelson
© 2020 by Poppie’s Hallel (BMI. Admin. by Amplified Administration)
